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AIR FORCE: Football workouts just a small part of cadets' summer
Air Force’s Chad Hall doesn’t have much sympathy when his football-playing friends at the University of Georgia complain about going through a tough offseason workout.
“I’m like, ‘Shut up,’” said Hall, a wide receiver/running back. “‘That’s all you’ve got to do all summer?’”
Hall has had far more on his plate than preparing for his senior football season.
During the past several weeks, along with teammates Julian Madrid, Noah Garguile and Caleb Morris, Hall went through Academy Flight Screening
The program includes 17 flights of about 90 minutes apiece and many additional hours of studying military-style flight procedures in a classroom setting. It demands six-day weeks starting at 4:45 a.m. daily and many not ending until the late afternoon.
That schedule offered the players the perfect excuse for skipping offseason workouts. But they did not use it.
Since late May, roommates Hall and Madrid — who finished the program Thursday and Monday, respectively — have spent four to five hours working out six days a week. Even after 12-hour sessions at the airfield, the pair made it to the gym, track or practice field.
“We never cut a workout short,” Hall said. “We always did extra — whether it was running or lifting. It’s not fun to do after a long day, but that’s our job.”
During AFS, Hall and Madrid flew Diamond DA-20 Katanas — single-engine training planes. Linemen Garguile and Morris flew larger planes because of their size.
The first week of the program consisted of “ground school” — essentially a class on airmanship that Hall said was more difficult than a typical academic class at the academy. After that, there was flying almost every day, along with more reading and studying.
“You have to learn all your procedures and your mission calls and the operating limits for the plane and what it does when this happens — emergency procedures,” said Madrid, an outside linebacker. “It’s a lot of learning.”
When the players began flying, they did so with an instructor. During their first several flights, instructors performed a maneuver, then asked their students to do it.
As the players gained more experienced, the instructors simply took notes and watched — sometimes grading them on so-called “check rides.” The players also had a chance to fly on their own.
“It was fun,” Madrid said of his solo mission. “Kind of like when get your driver’s license and you go out without your parents for the first time. There’s nobody nagging you that you’re not going the speed limit or that you’re too close to the person in front of you. You know what you should do.”
Hall said he worked up a sweat while flying and the rides could be physically taxing — especially when he flew twice in one day.
But that didn’t stop him and Madrid from fulfilling their obligation to football.
Their workouts, which they are continuing after completing AFS, include everything from typical running drills and weightlifting to impromptu seven-on-seven scrimmages with teammates and sinister metabolic exercises. After working out, the pair would eat dinner. Then they usually would break out dumbbells and cram in a final set or two before collapsing into bed.
“We want to outwork everybody,” Hall said.
Most nights, with a 4 a.m. wake-up call staring at them, they could allow themselves no more than six hours of sleep — much less than their counterparts at Georgia and most schools across the country. But neither player complained.
“I want to be a pilot, so it’s what I have to do,” said Madrid, who, along with Hall, finished what typically is a six-week program in about a month. “And working out, you just make the time and go through it. It’s not really an option. You kind of get in the mind-set that you do whatever it takes to accomplish your ultimate goals during the season.”
